Images from a Life: Places in a Boy's Heart and in a Man's Head

Human beings are the only species that spin yarns. As a product of having consciousness, we humans cannot help but reflect upon ourselves and the lives of others. Everyone has a story. Every story is different, and every story is important. Coming of age in the 50s, the author shares verbal pictures from that period that shaped his life. In his autobiography, Frank McCourt writes of his unhappy childhood in Ireland. He said, "the happy childhood is hardly worth your while." Gilmer begs to differ. He believes that every childhood is worth your while. It is not happiness or unhappiness that matters. What matters is what you do with it. Herein is the author's testimony to a happy childhood. This is not a biography nor is it a connected narrative. Think of it as a series of vignettes in a life collage. Youth never lasts very long. It is just a blink. But it is intense. On it hangs everything else. One should not waste it but live it to the best and fullest.